Category: Earth’s Moon

Waxing Gibbous Moon

The waxing gibbous moon rises above Earth’s blue atmosphere in this photograph taken from the International Space Station on Oct. 3, 2025, as it orbited 263 miles above a cloudy Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Quebec, Canada. In our entire solar system, the only object that shines with its own light is the Sun. […]

Lunar Challenge Winner Tests Technology in NASA Thermal Vacuum Chamber

By Savannah Bullard One year after winning second place in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, members of the small business Starpath visited NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of their prize opportunity to test their upgraded lunar regolith excavation and transportation rover in the center’s 20-foot thermal vacuum chamber. The […]

Artemis II Crew Both Subjects and Scientists in NASA Deep Space Research

With Artemis II, NASA is taking the science of living and working in space beyond low Earth orbit. While the test flight will help confirm the systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, the crew also will be serving as both scientists and volunteer research subjects, completing a suite of experiments that will […]

NASA’s Artemis II Lunar Science Operations to Inform Future Missions

While the Artemis II crew will be the first humans to test NASA’s Orion spacecraft in space, they will also conduct science investigations that will inform future deep space missions, including a lunar science investigation as Orion flies about 4,000 to 6,000 miles from the Moon’s surface.

Moonlight and Our Atmosphere

The Moon’s light is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere in this April 13, 2025, photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited into a sunset 264 miles above the border between Bolivia and Brazil in South America. Understanding the Moon helps us understand other planets, how they have evolved and the processes which have shaped […]

Moonlight and Our Atmosphere

The Moon’s light is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere in this April 13, 2025, photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited into a sunset 264 miles above the border between Bolivia and Brazil in South America. Understanding the Moon helps us understand other planets, how they have evolved and the processes which have shaped […]

NASA’s Apollo Samples, LRO Help Scientists Predict Moonquakes

Moonquakes pose little risk to astronauts during a mission lasting just a few days. But their effects on longer-term lunar surface assets could be significant.

NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends

The small satellite was to map lunar water, but operators lost contact with the spacecraft the day after launch and were unable to recover the mission. NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer ended its mission to the Moon on July 31. Despite extensive efforts, mission operators were unable to establish two-way communications after losing contact with the spacecraft […]

Looking Forward to the Moon

On May 8, 2022, NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems’ Program Manager Shawn Quinn captured this crop of a full frame image of the Hadley–Apennine region of Earth’s Moon including the Apollo 15 landing site (very near the edge of the shadow of one of the lunar mountains in the area). Building upon the pioneers from the […]